Kunsthal Rotterdam

The exhibition StoryLines presents a wide selection of De Jongh’s work, including sketchbooks, original drawings from her graphic novels, and digital 2D animations consisting of thousands of hand-drawn frames. The exhibition also includes multiple works around the theme of migration, such as the journalistic reports on refugee camps which De Jongh was commissioned to make on the Greek island of Lesbos for the Dutch newspaper NRC.

Ample attention will be paid to De Jongh’s graphic adaptation of the enduringly relevant novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ (1954) by Nobel Prize winner William Golding. ’Lord of the Flies’ tells the story of a group of British schoolboys who are stranded on a desert island and become entangled in a catastrophic power struggle for survival. De Jongh’s graphic novel adaptation, published in September 2024, will form an important part of the exhibition, with the original drawings also on display.

Love at an advanced age

In her graphic novels, De Jongh poignantly expresses complex themes and emotions. ‘Blossoms in Autumn’ (2018) and ‘Sixty Years in Winter’ (2022) are both moving stories of love between people of advanced age. The hopeful drawings show how making a new start or even changing your sexual identity are all still possible. In ‘Days of Sand’ (2021), De Jongh sheds light on the impact of one of America’s most impactful climate disasters. The book tells the story of the young photographer John Clark who, in 1937, was sent to cover the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, an area plagued by destructive dust storms that were the result of unsustainable farming techniques. De Jongh extensively researched the story and incorporated old photographs and diaries to reconstruct this climate disaster.

Animation art

Aimée de Jongh’s digital 2D animations are based on classical techniques that require thousands of hand-drawn images, sometimes involving up to 24 frames per second. Making a short, two-minute animation film may therefore take up to six months and consist of nearly three thousand drawings. De Jongh also creates animations in collaboration with the artist Miljohn Ruperto to make video art installations. These works, as well as other animation films, are all included in the exhibition StoryLines.

Artist Talk

Aimée de Jongh

Aimée de Jongh (1988) studied Animation at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, KASK in Ghent, and the prestigious Gobelins École de l’Image in Paris. She started her career with the daily comic strip ‘Snippers’ for the newspaper Metro. At a young age she published her first graphic novel, ‘The Return of the Honey Buzzard’, which was later turned into a film. ‘Blossoms in Autumn’, written by Zidrou, meant De Jongh’s international breakthrough. In 2019 she published the autobiographical graphic novel ‘TAXI!’. ‘Days of Sand’ appeared in 2021 and became a bestseller in the Netherlands and France, and ‘Sixty Years in Winter’, written by Ingrid Chabbert, appeared in 2022. Her graphic adaptation of the novel 'Lord of the Flies' was published in September 2024. Three of De Jongh's books were nominated for the American Eisner Award. She was the recipient of the Stripschapprijs, a prestigious Dutch award for creators of comics, and is a two-time winner of the Japan International Manga Award.

StoryLines Studio 

Aimée de Jongh has become world-famous with her beautifully illustrated books. The stories she tells in her drawings can take on all kinds of shapes, including comics, animations, and graphic novels. Graphic novels are comics in which the story unfolds through drawings and text balloons. In the StoryLines Studio, you create your own mini graphic novel in the exhibition space.